1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of fabricating an optical signal processor in which a light beam emitted from the end surface of an input optical waveguide is wavelength-divided and processed, to thus be incident on the end surface of an output optical waveguide.
2. Related Background Art
In general, a large number of optical signal processors used in an optical communication field enters a light beam emitted from the end surface of an optical fiber, give some process to the inputted light beam, and apply the resultant light beam to the end surface of anther optical fiber. In particular, an optical signal processor used in wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) optical communications can give a process to signal components having wavelengths different from each other by a diffraction grating element for spatially wavelength-dividing the inputted light beam.
For example, an optical signal processor described in the document 1 (D. M. Marom, et al., “Wavelength-selective 1×4 switch for 128 WDM channels at 50 GHz spacing”, OFC2002 Postdeadline Papers, FB7 (2002)), is used as an optical multiplexing/demultiplexing component in WDM optical communication systems. In this optical signal processor, the light beam emitted from the end surface of an optical fiber is inputted and collimated through an optical lens system, the collimated light beam is diffracted into a plurality of signal components having wavelengths different from each other at an angle of diffraction according to a wavelength through a diffraction grating element, and the diffracted signal components are condensed at the optical lens system to thus be reflected by the associated mirror reflectors. Further, the reflected signal components are multiplexed through the diffraction grating element, and the multiplexed light beam is inputted to the end surface of another optical fiber. Then, an input/output end of the signal component having each wavelength can be selected by adjusting the inclination of the associated mirror reflector provided according to each wavelength.